March Mummers return for one last outing

“We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, with a pocketful of money and a belly full of beer!”

The above words, spoken by the character of Jim Jack in the short Folk Play performed each year in March town centre by the March Mummers, are more poignant this year as it will be the last time the group will appear together to raise money for local charities.

The mummers group, who were founded in December 2011, have witnessed a lot of changes over the decade of entertaining their audiences in local pubs, the library, St Peter’s Church Hall and as part of the annual St George’s Fayre, have taken the decision to retire.

Stuart Broad, who plays the role of The Doctor, explained: “My wife and I have moved away from the area and we had hoped that the others might be able to fill the gap, but as the group is only small and other members have seen their family circumstances changed, such as the arrival of grandchildren, this is not going to happen.

Stuart added: "Whilst the current cast will no longer be performing the play, we have no objections to any other group of local performers taking over the reigns, and are happy to share our knowledge along with the script we use. The play was put together from other similar plays from the past and as it mostly rhymes, it is relatively easy to learn and remember.”

March Mummers, who are Marcus Phillips (as King George), Rodney Crabb (Beelzebub), Stuart Broad (The Doctor), Malcolm Busby (The Fool), Mike Thomas (Jim Jack) and Steve Cornell (Dame Jane) plus their collectors and prompt, will be performing their Folk Play on Saturday December 17 at 11.15am at the Library Christmas Coffee Morning, then Ye Olde Griffin Hotel and finally The Ship. They will also be collecting money for the local Food Bank.

Since they began going out each December the March Mummers have donated £1,898 to local charities including FACET, Eddies, EACH and The Ferry Project.

Mummers' Plays are winter folk-plays that were once performed in many towns and villages across an area that stretched from the south coast of England up to, and including, the central lowlands and parts of the southern uplands of Scotland. Commonly known as 'Quack Doctor Plays', due to so many of them including this character, sadly many died out in the early part of the last century.

Fortunately many of the scripts and a number of photographs were collected before the decline and today there is a large database of such plays that can be found at www.folkplay.info